Tobias Lensky
The spacers who frequent the bars and spaceports of the Outer Colonies have a saying: "Every cat has nine lives, but Tobias Lensky's got more because he's stolen the lives off of every other cat he's ever met." In a galaxy defined by alien warlords and armored supersoldiers, few ever suspected that the scruffy, unassuming spacer sitting a few stools down from them at the bar was actually one of the wealthiest men in human history. The fact that his lifetime of monumental achievements went largely unnoticed by society and historians alike did not irk Tobias Lensky in the slightest; if anything, he found his unsung state of affairs as amusing as he found most of the goings-on in the galaxy he helped to shape. During his untold decades of investing, acquiring, and scheming his way to the top, Tobias saw empires rise and fall, conspiracies convalesce and unravel, and entire planetary systems burned away by war and the inexorable march of time. Through it all, he lived life as a game, playing with money and lives as easily as his fellow spacers played cards. Though few history students would ever know his name, Tobias Lensky's successes (and failures) would prove to be the foundations for countless galaxy-shaping factors, from the criminal empire he founded to his ambitious daughter and warring sons. Tobias Lensky built himself a monumental legacy with little more than his own iron will, a shadowy pillar of the galactic underworld. Biography The Kingpin "Just A Punk From the Slums" The son of poor industrial workers on a nameless mining colony, Tobias Lensky learned at a young age that nothing in the galaxy came for free. With both parents spending countless hours in the factories and mines, a young Tobias was constantly left to look after himself. When not in school he would venture down to the spaceport and watch commercial and military vessels coming in to dock. In spite of his parents' disregard for his upbringing, Tobias quickly grew into a fiercely observant child. He saw the squalor his parents and their fellow colonists lived in and realized that there was no future to be had in following them into the mines. Before long young Tobias fell in with a gang of criminals operating out of the spaceport, proving himself useful as a lookout and a distraction. He soon ingratiated himself with the gang's leader and took to skipping out on school and avoiding his miserable home life whenever possible. When the came to the mining community the criminals gathered their earnings and fled the oncoming violence. Tobias went with them and never looked back. He spent his adolescence and teenage years following his mentor into dozens of business ventures, both legitimate and otherwise. Though he had little in the way of a formal education, Tobias learned the ropes of business and money-making from his criminal cohorts and became determined to defy his lowly origins and win himself a fortune. Inheriting his boss's entrepreneurial spirit, Tobias carefully familiarized himself with the nuances of a criminal underworld that was steadily growing throughout in the wake of the Insurrection's violence. By the time he was twenty, Tobias was a full partner in his teacher's criminal organization. The mining brat had learned his lesson well: when his mentor was finally arrested by the Colonial Administration Authority, Tobias saved the organization from the by testifying against the very man who had taken him in and built him up. Now in control of his own network of thieves, smugglers, and enforcers, Tobias set out to build the next era in the history of organized crime. Using a combination of shrewd business practices, careful maneuvering, and ruthless elimination of his competition, Tobias spent the next decade expanding his criminal operations. While many in the colonial underground feared the increased UNSC and CAA activity, Tobias saw opportunity in the violence. He cut deals with both sides of the ongoing rebellion, selling arms and equipment to insurgents while simultaneously selling out rebel leaders to the CAA and . Desperate to quell the spread of independence movements, the UEG propped up corrupt, pro-Earth colonial governments. Through bribery, blackmail, and personal politicking, Tobias won support for his burgeoning organization within the very governments charged with stamping it out. Before long he had bought powerful friends within the highest levels of the and colonial governments; these allies allowed him to expand his business ventures unchecked and any rival who dared oppose him soon found themselves on the wrong end of an assassin's scope or rotting in backwater colonial prisons. Tobias was no strategic or financial genius, but his casual charm and shrewd practices surrounded him with loyal men and women with all manner of useful talents. By 2520 Tobias found himself at the head of a criminal network with "business ventures" stretching from the slums of the Outer Colonies to the wealthy penthouses of itself. "Time to Play House" The onset of the 's to exterminate humanity proved to be the one thing that could curb Tobias's breakneck ascension. With his contacts in the Outer Colonies suddenly being slaughtered by alien warriors who could care less about angering mob bosses and politicians, Tobias was forced to bring his organization to ground. He invested resources in supporting the UEG and maintaining his political relationships while quietly continuing to amass huge profits through the new black market that emerged amidst the massive camps of displaced refugees and the sudden destruction of Outer Colony supply centers. In light of the breaks in inter-colonial communication brought on by the unprecedented violence Tobias initiated a radical restructuring of his organization, entrusting loyal subordinates with conducting their own affairs from planet to planet. These lieutenants were given the freedom to act independently while maintaining the flow of profit throughout the network. In order to oversee the long-term restructuring unmolested, Tobias reluctantly married Jocasta Powell, the daughter of a powerful colonial governor and took up residence in Jocasta's expansive mansion on the Inner Colony world Iskander. Jocasta and Tobias's marriage was one of political convenience and they mostly avoided each other's company, with Jocasta enjoying Iskander's high social life and Tobias content to immerse himself in his business dealings. The destruction caused by the Covenant War allowed Tobiasgreater access to UNSC military secrets; many of his contacts within the military and the in particular had need of his underworld support to maintain what remained of the colonial infrastructure under an increasingly military-dominated government. It was thus that Tobias first learned the details surrounding the , particularly the use of chemical augmentations to bolster the human body's physical capabilities. Tobias quickly realized the profits he might exploit from this burgeoning field of scientific research. Though the specifics behind the augmentation procedures were one of ONI's most carefully guarded secrets, Lensky used his influence to gain at least partial access to many of Section Three's genetic warfare and weapons development programs. It was also around this time that one of Lensky's salvage ships discovered a vessel of neither human nor Covenant origin floating amidst an asteroid field. Rather than turn the derelict over to the UNSC, Lensky had the vessel hidden away in a remote system and ensured that only a handful of his most trusted subordinates even knew of its existence. While they researched the small but potentially monumental discovery, Lensky turned to other matters. Bored by a stagnant domestic life, he started a dalliance with one of the Powell estate's housekeepers, a young woman named Dolores Onegin. Tobias's interest was mainly one of vague amusement, but as with everything else in his life he had a more calculating agenda in mind. He already knew that he had been blessed with a remarkably adaptable genome; Dolores Onegin had caught his eye not with any particular physical or personal charm but with her own highly potent genetic makeup. Tobias made no effort to avoid getting Dolores pregnant, and under the pretense of hiding the affair he had one of his private genetics experts subtly tailor the fetus in utero to make it even more adaptable to augmentations. Unlike such scientific pioneers as , Lensky had little interest in phenotypical superiority. To him, the true goal was a human being with a genome compatible with nearly any form of genetic augmentation. Dolores was ignorant of Tobias's true goals; she named her child Arthur and was simply relieved that her employer remained ignorant of the affair. It amused Tobias to have Arthur growing up on the Powell estate and he kept an eye on the boy's development. A few years after Arthur was born, Tobias came under pressure from Jocasta's father to produce an heir. Though both spouses despised their marraige to each other, Tobias and Jocasta conceived a daughter named Helen. Around the year 2540 Tobias received word from one of his private research labs that the derelict alien vessel had yielded preserved DNA samples that might possibly be developed into beneficial augmentations for human subjects. Unwilling to alert the authorities to his treasonous concealment of alien technology, Tobias instead pushed for further private research on the DNA. In the meantime his contacts within ONI alerted him to the of the SPARTAN program, being carried out in the most classified areas of human-controlled space. Curious to see if his own genetic research could match with military-grade augmentations, Tobias conceived a second son with Dolores. This time he had his doctors make even greater changes to the embryo's structure, splicing large amounts of DNA into its genetic code. The child that developed inside Dolores Onegin was ultimately less her child with Tobias and more a highly modified copy of Tobias himself. But Tobias's "hobby" was interrupted when Jocasta learned of his affair with Dolores. In order to sooth his jilted wife's fury, Tobias allowed the pregnant Dolores to be fired; she and Arthur were kicked off the estate. Tobias's relationship with Jocasta--cold and distant to begin with--was irrevocably damaged by the affair and he began to spend more time away from the estate, managing his affairs and observing Arthur's development from afar. Unfortunately, the now-teenaged Arthur despised Tobias for what he had done to his mother and made it his goal in life to keep his father away. At this time, something even more unexpected occurred. Jocasta, who had always suffered from a myriad of chronic illnesses, passed away and Helen, now fourteen, blamed her mother's death on Tobias's infidelity. Tobias, who had never paid much attention to his daughter, was stunned when he learned that she had been working behind his back and securing allies from the ranks of his own organization. Many of Tobias's top lieutenants had become angered by his obsession with personal projects and Helen, a prodigy in her own right, arranged for a quiet uprising that ousted her father and placed her in control of the organization. Now on the run and with his life's work in tatters, Tobias paid one last visit to Iskander's slums. Dolores had already died, but Arthur and her second son, Simon, were still living on the streets. A furious Arthur attacked Tobias in public and was arrested by the authorities while Tobias slipped away. Though Helen had placed an enormous bounty on his head, Tobias had plenty of extra funds squirreled away and bought his way off-world. Though he had fallen from power he was by no means without resources; if anything, Helen's uprising had freed him from the immeasurable responsibilities of managing a criminal empire so that he could focus on his personal goals in earnest. In particular, he used his remaining ONI contacts to ensure Arthur would be considered as a candidate in a military reform program while Simon would be shortlisted for conscription into the latest of Spartan programs. With the futures of both of the children that he had conceived and designed safely in hand, Tobias turned his attention to his long-time associate and business partner, Dr. Leonard Church. Personality and Traits Despite his lifetime of schemes and criminal endeavors, Tobias always conducted himself in a pleasant and easy-going manner. He was known by friends and foes alike to possess a constantly friendly demeanor and ruggedly gracious mannerisms. Tobias cultivated the image of a mildly cultured spacer, making himself an approachable and easygoing business partner. Though incredibly wealthy, Tobias rarely indulged in luxuries and was instead content to wear patched clothes and frequent dingy, low-priced bars. This many-layered facade masked his true nature as a ruthlessly cunning opportunist who cared little for the lives he often spent to achieve his goals. Category:ZOD Characters